Middlings-purifier



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' H. E. SMITH.

MIDDLINGS PURIFIER.

No. 247,954. Patented Oct. 4,1881.

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H. 'E. SMITH.

MIDDLINGS PURIPIER.

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H. E. SMITH. MIDDLINGSPURIFIER.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC HORACE E. SMITH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE ELEC- TRIC PURIFIER COMPANY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

MIDADLINGS-PURIIFIER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 247,954, dated October 4, 1881. Application filed July 1, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Beitknown that I,HoR Aon EUGENE SMITH, of Brooklyn, in the countyof Kings and State of New York, have invented a new Improvementin Combination Middlings-Purifiers; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with'the accompanying drawin gs, and the letters of reference marked thereon,to boa-full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1, a side view; Fig. 2, a top view; Fig. 3, an end view; Fig. 4, a longitudinal section, Fig. 5, a transverse section; Fig. 6, a

side view, showing modification.

This invention relates to an improvement in apparatus commonly called middlings purifiers. As here represented the invention is shown as applied in connection with the purifierfor which Letters Patent were granted to Thomas B. Osborne, dated February 17,1880, No. 224,719; but other purifying apparatus may be applied without departing from this invention.

The purifying of middlings is a complex process involving quite a number of boltings, crushings, and repurifyings of different products, and is also one that is varied considerably by different millers, each having his own favorite methods. In order to carryit out completely it is necessary to have several purifiers, each having different grades of sieves, and to use them in connection with each other, thus forming what is called a system. This requires a larger expenditure of money, space, andpower than can be afiorded by small millers. The new process of makingflouris therefore confined for the most part to mills of large capacity and capital.

The object of this invention is to adapt a single purifier to do the work of a system by such a modification and arrangement of its parts that the miller can cause the product produced in any part of the purifying process to be immediately passed through the next succeeding operation in another part of the samemachine, thus carryin g on simultaneously several different operationsin one and the same machine, the miller also being enabled to vary of flour and can afford to run an entire system of purifiers.

The invention consists, essentially,in the combination, in a single organized machine, of a sieve arranged to agitate the material thereon as it gradually passes over it, and constructed in two or more divisions, each, by preference, of different grades of cloth, with mechanism to remove the lighter particles from the material on the sieve, and with receivers below for that portion of the material which passes through the cloth, and mechanism to transfer the material, or a portion of it which falls into the first receiver, to the second division of the sieve, and so on through the several divisions, as more fully hereinafter described.

A is the frame which supports the mechanism; B, the sieve-frame arranged on suitable supports in the frame on the machine, so as to be movable longitudinally thereon. To this frame a reciprocating or shaking movement is imparted by a cam, b, on the driving-shaft a, so that the material lying on the surface of the sieve-cloth will be agitated as it passes over the cloth for the purpose of sifting the finer particles through the cloth and bringing the lighter particles to the top for removal by the electrified rolls and in order that the material I cloth. As represented in the drawings, each division is also subdivided into three grades of cloth, 0, O, and 0 Fig. 4, the first, (J, being finer, the second, C, a grade coarser, and the third, 0 still coarser, so that material passin g over each division of the sieve will be separated into three grades. The arrangement of grades is, however, a matter to be varied at the discretion of the miller.

D is the hopper into which the ground material is first placed, and from which it is delivered to the first division B of the sieve; thence it passes over that division of the sieve, the finest material delivered through the first subdivision 0 of the first sieve B into a receiver, E, the next grade through the second subdivision G into the receiver E below, and the next grade through the subdivision 0 into the receiver E below. These receivers may be made of hopper shape, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5. Beneath each division B, B and B and their respective subdivisions there is a like hopper-shaped receiver.

F,F, F and F represent the electrified rolls, arranged in accordance with the Osborne patent, hereinbefore referred to, and which revolve near the surface of the ground material being carried on the sieve, so as to attract and remove the lighter particles of the ground material. A detailed description of this electrical purifying apparatus is unnecessary in this specification, further than to say that the mechanism which moves the other operative parts of the machine is preferably connected with it, so as to cause the revolution of the electrified rolls.

It is to be understood that other purifying apparatus may be substituted for the electrified rolls, and that this invention is not to be limited to the use of the said electrified rolls, although they are preferred to any known purifying apparatus.

From each end of the receivers a spout, (1, leads outward, so as to conduct the ground material from the receivers as fast as itaccumulates therein, and may be thence carried to a regrinder.

Portions of the sifted material, in order to produce the best results, require more than one passage beneath the electrified rolls or to be subjected to more than a single operation of the purifying apparatus. To'this end each of the receivers has a false bottom, 0, which, when serving as a bottom, as seen in Fig. 5, conducts the material to the discharge-spout d of that receiver; but when the bottom is turned over onto the opposite side of the receiver, as indicated in broken lines, Fig. 5, it closes the spout and opens the bottom of the receiver, so that the material which falls into the receiver will pass off to an endless carrier or apron,j', which is constantly moving. toward the end of the machine where the material is received, being caused thus to move by means of revolving drums g at each end, over which it passes, and so that taking the material from the receiver it will be carried to the end and there delivered to a receiver, H, as indicated in Fig. 4, whence it is taken up by an elevator, I, and delivered to the second hopper D, which conducts it to the second division 13 of the sieve, over which it passes, and in such passage is subjected to a second purifying operation and subdivision, falling into the receivers below, thence to be removed through one of the conductors or dropped onto a second apron,f, which leads it to a second receiver, H, where it is taken by a second elevator, I, and delivered to the third hopper D which conducts it onto the third division B to be there subjected to a third purifying operation, whence it falls onto the receiver below and is removed through their respective spouts. This completes the final operation in a machine having three divisions or sieves.

The several receivers E E E ofeach division may deliver all the material they receive onto the apron, to be transferred to the next sieve or purifying operation, and so on to the last, the recciverbeneath the last division delivering the material in three grades through their respective spouts. V

It will be understood that the grades of cloth for each division differ, that in the second division finer or coarser than the first and that in the third finer or coarser than the second, according to thejudgment of the miller.

Instead of mixing the product of each division, that from one-say the first--may be removed from the machine through its spout, that of the second may be carried to the receiver H, thence to the second division of the sieve for repurification, and that from the third may be carried to a regrinder; or either may be carried to the regrinder, or the first and finest carried to the receiver H, thence to be transferred to the second division of the sieve for repurification, and that from the other two divisions respectively to difi'erent grades of grinders, to be again subjected to retreatment in this purifying apparatus.

Instead of different grades of cloth for the subdivisions ofeach division, each division may be of the same cloth throughout, but each division varying in grade from the preceding, so that if finer all that passes through the first will fall upon the apron F and be transferred to the second, and that which passes through the second transferred to the third, and that which passes the third delivered through the dischargespout.

The material which passes over each division and will not pass through cloth gradually works ofl' at the lower end of the sieve, and is known as tailings, being thence removed for regrindiug or other treatment.

The false bottoms c are arranged at the lower edge, and so as to be readily adjusted from their position of closing the spout and opening the bottom to the apron, or vice versa. This may be simply by a cord or rod, h, as seen in Fig. 5, attached to the false bottom 0 above its hinge and extending outside, so that by pullspout, as seen in broken lines,

ing upon the cord or rod thefalse bottom may be drawn over to cover the opening to the Fig. 5, or returned. v

The system of pulleys and belts whereby the several parts may be made to work together will be readily understood from the drawings without detailed description.

Instead of the hopper-shaped receiver beneath the subdivisions of the sieves, the arrangement may be as seen in Fig. 6 of the draw ings, which represents a simpler arrangement of lower receivers and conveyers. In this arrangement the material falls from the first division of the sieve-frame through sieve-cloths of different grades or subdivisions, as before; butinstead of separate receivers it falls into a common receptacle, E, along the bottom of which the con veyer runs, represented in broken lines as an endless screw. All the material which falls into this receptacle from the first and finest subdivision of the sieve is carried by the conveyer to the front of the machine, and thence is taken away for treatment in another apparatus. The miller may also convey away with it all that portion of the material which falls through the other subdivisions of the sieve; but if he desires to subject any of this portion to repurification he opens one of the spoutssay d-in the bottom of thereceiver or conveyer-trough just forward of the portion desired to be repurified, by which means all the material that falls into the receptacle in the rear of such slide is carried to the opening so made, and thence falls into the lower conveyer, L, where it is moved to the front, and there delivered to the first elevator, which transfers it to the second hopper for repuritication on the second division of the sieve, as before described. The same arrangement of a common receptacle having an upper and lower conveyer exists in connection with the second division of the sieve-frame, the product of the first subdivision of the sieve being carried, as before, to the front of the machine for retreatment elsewhere, and the miller, by means of openings in the bottom of the upper receivertrough, is enabled to drop any part of the product of the rear subdivisions of the .sieves into the lower conveyer, by which it is carried to the second elevator, and delivered into the third division for repurification on the third division of the sieve-frame. Here it again falls through the sieve into the common receptacle, and is thence all carried again to the front by the conveyer connected therewith, or the rear portion of it is drawn separately through open ings in the bottom of the conveyer-trough for separate treatment.

I have described my invention as provided with different grades of cloth in the two or more divisions of the sieve, and this I prefer; yet very good results are attained by employing cloth of the same grade in the different divisions. I therefore do not confine myselfto different gradcs'of cloth in the different divisions of the sieve.

I claim- The combination, in a single organized machine, of the following elements, viz: first, a

'sieve arranged to agitate the material as it gradually passes over it, constructed in two or more divisions; second, mechanism to remove the lighter particles from the material in its passage over the sieve; third, a receiver below the respective divisions of the sieve, into which the material passing through sieves above falls; and, fourth, mechanism, substantially such as described, to transfer the material which falls into one receiver or a portion of it to the next division of the sieve, substantially as described.

- HORACE E. SMITH. Witnesses FRANCIS E. SMITH, ALBERT E. LEACH. 

